System Overclocked 3 -ch 4-

Chapter 4

Wrench stopped and started to laugh. To the point that he had to stand up and look at Talker.

“You boxed mother-fucker. You’re the reason Zntik was there!” he said accusingly.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Talker replied, rotating idly in the space above him and to the side. Clearly keeping himself entertained. “Why would I ever drop beautiful Grae and Hume into your work groups and path just to try and get you in trouble with Stripe.

“How could you ever accuse someone as innocent and kind as I?”

“You did do it! You jerk. Do I need to start telling you how amazing you are to every Tongsa I run across? Do I need to go lie to Pretty Blue that you moon over her constantly?” hissed Wrench, still laughing even as he spoke.

“You could try. She won’t believe you,” mused Talker. “She and I just never fit that way, Wrench. I wish I could explain Tongsta relationships or how we find mates but it’s nothing like Hume and Grae.”

“Oh, sure, sure. Fine. I’m going to tell her anyways,” Wrench threw out at the Tongsta, then sighed. “Jerk. Fine, fine. You got me.

“I’ll get you back, you just wait.”

“I’m so eager to see where you go with it,” Talker said in a teasing voice. “Though, you might as well pack it in, buddy. This testing session is almost over.

“I know it’s been a boring three days for you but they’re really enjoying it. Apparently… they even started to understand you a bit. That vague general feeling we get when we first start to figure it out.”

“Told you they’d take longer. Your stupid cubed-ass had it within that first work shift, I swear.”

“I mean, with how much Tickaht and Scrunch were cursing at me, I didn’t have much of a choice?” countered Talker good naturedly. “They’ll figure it out. Just remember that they’re Admini.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me. Though, are you a Brawler or a Fixer type?” Wrench asked, his head tilting to one side. He knew Tongsta weren’t that way and weren’t specialized, but he figured they all had a leaning one way or another.

“Would you be surprised to know I’m a Mender?” Talker asked with a laugh.

“No. I wouldn’t. That makes sense in a way,” Wrench said then shook his head. “Alright. Uh… hey, Eggs, do I need to clean up after myself or are you going to handle it for me.”

There were a trio of Tongsta off to the side. They were working with odd looking Tongsta tablets and devices the entire time.

Talker laughed at his commentary but didn’t say anything.

He was under orders to not translate for them.

“He… ah… you want to know… if you’re done?” asked one of them.

“Or if-if ah, you’re done and need to clean up?” another asked.

“If I need to clean up. Or can you manage it for me?” Wrench asked.

“To… clean up. Right? To clean up? If it’s cleaning up, I’ll handle it,” said one of the Eggs.

“Thanks. You’re now Bright One since you’ve picked it up so quickly,” Wrench said seriously. “Alright. I’m going to go put on my suit and head back to my Hab.”

“Got it,” Talker murmured. “I’m going to head out myself then. Have a nice day Wrench. You’ve got the next two Hume days off for yourself.

“Oh, and apparently there’s some Grand Clan Admini coming to see the results up close and rounded,” Talker warned. “I don’t think it’ll be an issue but you should know about it.”

“Won’t be an issue because the Grand Clan heard Goodie jumped a ship into a planet?” Wrench asked.

“Oh yeah. Lady Goodie is not someone the Grand Clan can afford to offend anymore,” Talker agreed. “Speaking of, I’m going straight to Lady Goodie’s office to give her my update. Chances are she’ll visit you in those two days that you’re not helping with testing.”

“Nice. Alright. Take it easy Talker, say hi to Little Green for me,” said Wrench as he walked over to his suit.

Two days, huh?

Alright.

That’ll be nice.

By the time I get home every night, everyone’s asleep.

I haven’t even gotten a chance to see Gadget, Spooky, Dusky, or anyone, really.

Just whoever’s up still.

Which… thankfully… that’s been Stripe, Seventh, or Tickaht.

***

Wrench ended up returning far later than he had expected.

Bright One had asked him if he wouldn’t mind taking some extra time out to help him with vocabulary.

Which really just came down to Bright One asking Wrench to say a specific word repeatedly. Sometimes with Bright One touching Wrench, sometimes not.

In the span of just an hour Bright One had gotten much further along that Wrench would have expected.

It made it hard to be resentful at all for the time spent, but it was also far later now than he had ever returned previously. He and Stripe had already talked about this type of situation and that she’d just go to bed without him.

They’d been able to talk more recently than they’d been able to when working on the ship in shifts. In just two nights they’d caught up and had just been spending time with one another.

Though that’d turned into making out more than a few times. Unfortunately Stripe had apologized, admitted she wasn’t quite ready, and that would be it.

To which Wrench had immediately gone and tracked down Tickaht or Seventh to see if they were willing to jump in a bed with him.

Bright One had put Wrench into the loading bay rather than the airlock in an attempt to not wake anyone up. Given that it was meant for Tongsta to interact with the Hab without bothering the Hume as well as to not let them escape, it was a good suggestion on Bright One’s part.

With a soft hiss of atmosphere changing, the loading bay finished it’s cycle and Wrench could now leave it.

Exiting it, he walked out into the Ducts that it was attached to and paused.

He’d heard something odd just as he had grabbed the door to close it.

Standing there, he listened. Closing his eyes he put his entire being toward listening.

Even going so far as to ramp up his nervous system, or more accurately, his auditory nerve system so that he could hear better.

No sooner than he did, he heard a very quiet rustling along with a gentle clatter.

Wrench opened his eyes and began moving, leaving the door to the loading bay open. He didn’t want to make any noise right now if he didn’t have to.

Walking along the Ducts, Wrench continued to listen. Letting the sound guide him ever closer.

There was just the barest hint of noise now, as if whoever he was following had moved into an area that was harder to hear them at.

Speeding up to a smooth walk, Wrench pushed on.

When he had first heard the noise he had felt that it sounded a lot like a grate being settled back into place. As if someone was mucking about with one of the sub-strait entries.

Here, in Goodie’s Hab, that area wasn’t very big and generally didn’t need much in the way of maintenance. Mostly because Hume hadn’t died anywhere as of yet and there hadn’t been enough wear and tear to warrant maintenance.

It’d be a good two or three decades before he would likely even need to go down there.

Yet it was also a great place to go into if you wanted to ruin a Hab. You could put a great many things in the deepest darkest corner and it’d possibly be overlooked in a search.

I didn’t actually go and look through every single person that came over with Dusky and the others, did I.

Now I get to suffer for that I bet.

Fuck.

I mean, there’s the distinct possibility that the Hume resistance would view me and what we’re doing as an enemy.

It isn’t hard to fathom that they’d heard about me after Small-Boy reported back about what I warned them of.

Damnit all.

Grimacing, Wrench hurried on to the grate.

It was in the back of the Ducts where there wasn’t too many reasons to venture.

For Wrench’s Hab it was storage, the grate itself, and shelving. That was it and all that was ever planned to be back that way.

Getting down on his knees, Wrench put his ear to the grate.

He could faintly hear the sound of someone moving around in the sub-strait. The crunch and pop of the thumb sized rocks grinding against one another.

Fuck!

There really is someone down there.

Cursing in his mind, Wrench levered the grate up. He managed to do it without it making any noise, thankfully.

Dropping down into the sub-strait he found that he would have to be hunched over quite a ways to move through this section of it.

Even if he did hunch, it was quite likely his shoulders would probably scrape against the ceiling.

Given his height and size, this would be rather awkward for him.

Shaking his head, Wrench realized he would need to put security on the grate, like a padlock. As well as some type of sensor to record people coming and going.

Beyond that, he would need to go through every single person who had entered his Hab to see who they were and if he should be concerned.

Maybe one of the Lovely group?

Moving forward quietly, Wrench did his best to limit his noise and the sounds he made. He needed to catch the person, not spook them off.

Catch them and question them.

Moving forward Wrench entered into the greater sub-strait. An area that ran the entirety of the Hab but wasn’t very tall. Somewhere liquids and semi-solids could drain through the floor into if needed.

Wrench went still and listened.

Stretching out his senses to hear anything at all in here.

Except there wasn’t anything to hear.

It was deadly silent.

Frowning, Wrench realized that whoever was down here had heard him, or was doing something that didn’t make much noise.

Chewing at his lip, Wrench came to a decision quickly.

Shuffling off to one side, he moved around the edge of the supports that were under the Duct and put himself out of view of the vast majority of the sub-strait.

There was only one corner that would be able to see or hear him from if he stood as still as possible.

Cancel that. We won’t capture anyone.

We need to take a different approach.

A smart one.

We’ll figure out what they did, look it over, then add the security.

I’ll be able to find out what’s happening and then back track to who did it, too.

Nodding his head to his own ideas, Wrench shifted his feet around, then lowered himself down from the hunch he was in, to a squat. Putting his back to the support structure.

He could wait.

Wrench left his hearing dialed up, but then slowly lowered his systems and functions. Drawing it down to a point that he was just about sleeping upright, but not.

The world faded away into a pleasant nothing, punctuated by the ocassional noise that he couldn’t identify. It reminded him of something rubbing together.

Those noises didn’t concern him though, nor did it draw him out of state of non-wakefulness. Whatever the person was doing, they were doing it.

Time slid by.

Eventually, the sound of the individual moving prompted Wrench to come back to himself. Dialing his systems back up and coming to a full wakened state.

He also drew up his ability to see in the dark and made it more significant. To the point that he could see a good distance into the sub-strait in any direction.

Slowly, the person came ever closer to him.

Wrench directed his attention to the point that his hearing was telling him that it was coming from. A far corner, just about the furthest one could get from the entrance.

Through the shadows and dark, a figure was forming.

One that Wrench had a hard time believing to be true.

Stripe was moving at a snail’s pace toward the exit. One foot being placed in front of the other with excruciating slowness.

As if she were terrified to make a single noise.

Unable to watch, and unsure of what was going on, Wrench moved back behidn the support structure and stared at the ground.

He would have to go inspect whatever it was Stripe was doing down here.

I should’ve known better.

The list of people who can get into the Ducts is very small.

Very, very small.

But… what was she doing?

It’s not anything ominous, I hope.

Maybe she just wanted to look around the sub-strait and see what was here?

No, that doesn’t make sense.

She would have asked me first before coming down here to do work. She always asks.

That really only leaves her not wanting anyone to know she was down here.

Fucking hell.

Checking a groan, then a sigh, Wrench just closed his eyes.

The slow creak and crunch of Stripe moving faded away, only to be replaced by her going up the short ladder to the grate.

She opened it with great care, exited, then set it back down.

He heard her shoes scuff across the floor above him as she went into the Ducts.

Wrench got back up into a hunch and then deliberately started moving in the direction Stripe had been. All the while taking care to not make too much noise, but unable to slow himself down to a true crawl.

Wrench had to know what the hell was going on and he needed to know now.

Immediately.

Upon reaching the corner, Wrench was confused.

There wasn’t anything over here.

A support structure was in place to hold up something above this point, just as many other locations were throughout the sub-strait, but there wasn’t anything else here.

Wrench turned up his ability to smell and found that Stripe’s scent was all over this area. That whatever she was doing, it was over here and not somewhere else.

As he turned his head to look back the way he came, he noticed that the wall wasn’t in line with the exterior wall of the Hab.

It was off by just a few degrees.

Staring at it, Wrench had a realization.

Such a small thing wasn’t likely to be noticed by anyone given the darkness of the sub-strait and that it wouldn’t matter to most people.

To Wrench this was a sign that the Hab was buckling and the support structure as a whole would need to be reinforced.

Which wasn’t actually something that could go wrong with this Hab.

Walking to the junction point of where the structure support wall met the Hab wall, Wrench looked around.

He noted that the rocks in this exact spot had an odd look to them now that he was inspecting them from just about on top of them.

Reachign down he gently pushed at the rocks and found they didn’t move at all.

They’re glued together.

Thinking on that, Wrench looked to the support wall.

There was a smudge in one spot that looked like it had been touched more than a few times by a hand. Transferring oils to this spot.

Once again it wouldn’t be visible without his ability to see in the dark or a light source.

Wrench gently pushed on that spot.

The support wall swung inward, revealing that this small section was actually a false support structure.

Ah shit.

This is even worse than I thought.

She’s made a little hide-away for whatever she’s doing down here.

Is it a bomb?

Some type of gas or poison that’s just waiting to be set off?

Damnit all.

I’ve been fooled from the start.

Wrench moved forward and entered the false structure.

It was easily six foot by six foot the roof was raised higher than normal in this section. As if the makers of the Hab needed the area for something else and in this case, took shifted the sub-strait up.

Looking around, Wrench was surprised.

Pleasantly so.

It was indeed a hide-away.

Or more accurately, a nest.

The walls were lined with shelves.

There was a small bedroll and blanket in the corner.

A single seat and a desk were along one wall.

The ground actually had a carpet to it and there was a small chest to one side.

Then Wrench spotted a light switch. After he dimmed his night vision he flicked it.

The interior of the room was lit up more than bright enough to see by.

This was quite literally a retreat for Stripe to hide in.

But why would she hide?

Walking over to the shelves, he peered at the spines of the books.

They were odd to him an didn’t look like most of the books he’d seen in his life.

On top of that, the spines of the books had hand written labels. Each and every one had the look of what he thought was the month and the year.

There was a gap for one book in the entirety of the shelves. It was near the top of it. It would just happen to be this month and this years title as well.

Looking to the desk, Wrench saw that there was indeed one book there along with what looked to be a pen next to it.

“That’s… this month so… that’s the missing book,” Wrench murmured as he tilted his head around to look at the spine’s title.

Moving over to the book he gently flipped it open to the first page.

Inside of the book, right there on the opening page, was an insane amount of hand written text. All of it bunched in tight together and on top of each other.

Filling it up from the top of the page to the very bottom of the page.

He casually flipped through a few pages before stopping on one.

“Uh?” Wrench mumbled and then started to read from the middle.

Though as he read, he broke it down into lines and paragraphs, rather than one continuous block of text.

Trying to read it like that would’ve given him difficulty.

“Then Wrench looked into the storage facilities and confirmed that everything was at is should be. Now I’m glad that I took the time to check it before he could!

“He didn’t have to do anything at all and was able to move on to his last task.

“Or so I thought. Whatever his last task was, he didn’t bother to do it, despite having it blocked into his schedule.

“Instead, he came and saw me!

“He kissed me a lot and I had a hard time not tearing his clothes off and taking what’s mine right then and there. In front of everyone.

“But then I’d probably have to deal with everyone more openly and that’d just lead to me having to kill people and get rid of the bodies. As much as I want to think I could get away with it, Wrench is far too smart and capable.

“I’m sure he’d catch me before I even got done getting rid of the second body before I could kill a third.

“But that’s why he’s so amazing. Wrench is everything.

“Everything.

“Wrench is my all.

“ALL.”

A significant portion of the page was dedicated from that point on to writing out over and over how he was apparently Stripe’s everything or all.

Sometimes both.

At points the words became jumbled to the point that he couldn’t even read them.

There was a sudden break in the writing there and it resumed into a normal form and flow. It began to detail out his day from after he had spent time with Stripe.

When he got to the bottom of the page he looked to the next.

There was only a fraction written there in comparison to the other pages. It was surprising all things considered.

Curious, he started reading again, though he did mentally break it down into lines again.

“Wrench has been gone all day.

“I miss him.

“It’s hard to think when he isn’t nearby. Hard to do anything at all.

“But I’m managing it.

“I didn’t kill anyone. I didn’t harm anyone. I didn’t do anything bad.

“I’m a very good girl today. I’m sure he’ll talk to me and be kind to me. Hopefully he’ll kiss me a lot again when he gets back. I hope it’s soon, but if it’s too late, I have to go to sleep.

“I promised him I would and I always do everything he wants me to do.

“Always.

“That’s why I’ve been so kind with Squeak despite the fact that she knows.

“She knows and she shouldn’t, but she knows, but she shouldn’t. She knows and she shouldn’t. But… Wrench said I must be kind to her.

“I must be kind. I must treat her just as I would Seventh or Tickaht.

“I can’t kill her. Wrench likes her.

“I’ll make her like me. I’ll get her to like me.

“If she likes me, she’ll be happy. If she’s happy, Wrench will be happy.

“When Wrench is happy, I’m happy.

“If they’re all happy, and like me, and need me, then Wrench is happy, and will like me, and need me.

“I need to be needed.

“I need Wrench to need me. I need it. I need him.

“I love him. I’ll do anything for him.

“Everything for him.

“He looks at me so kindly. With so much love.

“I haven’t had to kill anyone since I met him and I feel so much more grounded. So much more… Hume.

“That I actually worry over other people’s feelings and want to be the best person I am.

“I clean, cook, care, and do all I can to be the best Strip I can be.

“Because Wrench deserves the best Stripe.

“The absolute best. And I can’t fail him.’

“I could never fail him.

“I must never fail him.

“I’d rather die than fail him. Die instead of not being the best Stripe.

“I’ll always be the best Stripe. Always.

“Stripe is for Wrench. Best Stripe.

“For him.

“Die for him. Die for Wrench. Everything is for him.

“All is for him.

“As it should be. Wrench is everything to me and anything.

“I miss Wrench.

“Oooh, I want to see him.

“I miss him.

“I love Wrench.

“Wrench is my everything.

“Wrench is my everything. Wrench—”

Sighing, Wrench flipped the book closed and then shut his eyes tight.

He had seen that the rest of the page devolved into calling him her everything all over again.

Right up to where she finished writing.

Which was likely today when she had left.

Okay.

Stripe is… batshit crazy.

We’re just going to pretend we don’t know.

That we aren’t aware she’s broken and the type of person who goes right off the deep end and kills an entire Hab.

Though apparently Squeak knows, so… we’ll go have a talk with her.

Shaking his head, Wrench turned off the light, exited the little room and put the wall back in place. It was now as if he had never touched it.

Then he left, determined to never speak of this to Stripe unless he had to.

Because in the end it sounded as if Stripe was insane, but so deep in his corner that she’d rather die than be found out or damage him, or his image of her.

Then again, I dealt with Pain far longer than I should have.

Maybe she was training me for Stripe.